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Cast Away

Decent Essays

In the movie Cast Away, Chuck Noland says that to turn ones back on time is to commit a sin. In this movie, Chuck’s life revolves around time, and his ability to make more money is directly affected by time. This fact, however, is exactly what is related as a bad thing. Throughout the movie, capitalistic ventures, which require an extreme investment of time, are characterized as evil. The message sent in Cast Away is that we live in a corrupt and morally bankrupt society which is only concerned with the bottom line, but if we all “get back to the basics” and search our souls for what really matters in life, we may have a chance of turning out okay. Chuck Noland represents the United States in this movie, especially in the former …show more content…

Since Chuck Noland represents evil in the form of a taskmaster of time, his punishment is to be sent away to solitude where time is not a factor. Before he arrives at his lonely island, Chuck is not good at dealing with people or emotions. He only gives his friend a phone number when his friend’s wife is dying of cancer. He offers no emotional support, and even tries to stay out of the conversation when the flight attendant is talking to his friend about it. Some other examples of this are the Christmas presents he buys Kelly (Cast Away). Even though they are gag gifts, it is still insensitive, and he did not think about how it would make her feel. He suffers a Satan-esque fall to this island where suddenly all the time and money in the world no longer matter. It is only after being stripped of these elements that Chuck is able to sort out what really matters in life. The fact that he does not open the package with the wings on it symbolizes that he is beginning to become more attuned to the elements of life that truly matter (Cast Away). He could have easily opened it, but he realized that respecting someone’s privacy, even on that remote island, was vitally important. He also realized that having a companion was important in survival, and this is why he created Wilson (Cast Away). Wilson taught him that he was taking his friendships and relationships in his earlier life for

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